THE Federal Government has given State governments autonomy to produce own power so as to ensure improved power supply in the country.

It said this is because nothing in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act EPSRA deter States from doing such.

Speaking at the 18th monthly power sector operators meeting on Monday at the Kumbotso transmission station, Kano State, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola said interested States must obtain the necessary permit and licenses from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) depending on the areas it wants to invest in.

His words; “Let me also make this point clear today, I have heard statements made that State governments should be allowed to produce their own power.

“The truth is that there is nothing in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act that stops any state from doing so, so the only thing they must do is to get NERC’s permit and licenses depending on whatever categorisation of investment they want to do whether it is distribution or generation.

“So, let me be clear about that, I will support any state that wants to get involved in generating and also distributing power under its own arrangement.”

The Minister also disclosed that unlike in 2015, there has been improvements in power generation in the country.

He said this is as a result of government’s efforts in the areas of repairs of pipelines and gas supply.

According to him, the continuous attack on pipelines in 2015 had led to poor generation adding that this reduced in 2017.

“We have made some progress with generation previously, unlike in 2015, damage to gas pipelines and assets has reduced in 2017, this is as a result of government’s efforts and significant progress is now being made with the repairs and supply of gas.

“From a generation of about 2690MWs in May, 2016 we have grown to 6863MWs in generation and transmission has increased from 5000MWs to 6700MWs.”

He quickly pointed out that: “Although this does not mean that we have enough gas for all our power plants, we are atleast getting closer to where we were in February 2016 when we first crossed the 5000MWs line which was mainly fired then by gas plants before the attacks on the pipelines started.”

In his explanations, he said as at 3rd of August, 2017 the total available power which can be put on the grid was 6863MWs while the transmission capacity has risen to 6700MWs.

However, he lamented the inability of distribution companies to take-on power describing this as ‘load rejection’.

“Unfortunately, we can’t put all of that power on the grid because the DisCos cannot take the power and this is what we call load rejection.”

He blamed this on old assets inherited, bad debts that has continued to hamper DisCos’ access to credit, insufficient investment by DisCos among others.

“We have a new problem and that is inability of DisCos to take power and sell power, but there many reasons for this, old assets inherited, insufficient investments by them, and other factors.

To this end, he stressed the need for joint efforts of all stakeholders in the sector to improve power supply saying:” We need every part of the value chain from gas to generation from transmission to distribution to operate efficiently.”

In another development, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also launched the mini-grid regulations designed to serve unserved and underserved communities in terms of availability of power.

Presenting the regulations at the event, the NERC’s Vice Chairman, Sanusi Garba said this will cover customers in communities who are not captured in the 5-year development plan of the distribution companies (DisCos).

He said: “The NERC took the initiative of developing a regulation to remove some of the impediments that have sold private investments in rural electrification and the regulations provide for cost reflective tarrifs for investors and on the existing tariff methodology.

“The regulation also provides for strategies for investors in mini-grids. It is expected that investors in mini-grid will comply with our technical standards. The communities that are expected to benefit are those who are not captured in the 5 year development plan of the DisCos.”

Source: http://tribuneonlineng.com/fg-gives-states-autonomy-produce-power/

that's good..that should increase the power supply

You guys realise many states have had Independent power projects for many years right?

Blue3k:
You guys realise many states have had Independent power projects for many years right?

Except Lagos that I know of.

give states resource control .

osile2012:
give states resource control .

It's a gradual thing, we will get there

Blue3k:
You guys realise many states have had Independent power projects for many years right?

They still end up adding it to the National grid

If not, then Lagos would have been running on 24-hours electricity

If this is actually true, then it's probably the best piece of news I've read in a while

States like Lagos and Ogun have never been short of investors willing to invest in IPPs. The useless bottlenecks are the things holding them down. So many jobs will be created if this gets done. The number 1 reason why most Nigerian SMEs fail is poor electricity

But again, I fear the generator guys would scuttle it . Heck! they are the ones making the laws

The big things to pay attention to would be these if you didn't know about them already. The distribution part is interesting showing that states can get permit to channel MW to themselves. This permit Akwa Ibom got so it can potentially give 5 local governments 24/7 power.

the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also launched the mini-grid regulations designed to serve unserved and underserved communities in terms of availability of power.

“The truth is that there is nothing in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act that stops any state from doing so, so the only thing they must do is to get NERC’s permit and licenses depending on whatever categorisation of investment they want to do whether it is distribution or generation.

Blue3k:
You guys realise many states have had Independent power projects for many years right?

The problem is sending the generated power from those IPPs to the national grid to be shared back to those that generated it in the first place.

Akwa Ibom has IPP, but do we have constant power? NO, because the power we generate is sent to the national grid to be allocated back to us.
That policy makes sense right?

We should be sending our excess output to national grid.

menxer:

Akwa Ibom has IPP, but do we have constant power? NO, because the power we generate is sent to the national grid to be allocated back to us.
That policy makes sense right?

We should be sending our excess output to national grid.

Agreed but NASS has to make law change. Till then we have get permission to channel our power for our own benefit.

Blue3k:


Agreed but NASS has to make law change. Till then we have get permission to channel our power for our own benefit.

I don't think I understand your point.

The Minister didn't say anything about what happens to the power generated, unless the mini-grid he mentioned will address that, Only no law stops a state from generating power, which is true in the case of Akwa Ibom.

Blue3k:
You guys realise many states have had Independent power projects for many years right?

the main thing is consumption of the power. What's the use of generation? When pumped into the grid, we start hearing stories of vandalism. Pathetic.

Abeg it must confirmed first,we don't want to hear ''deny''

menxer:


I don't think I understand your point.

The Minister didn't say anything about what happens to the power generated, unless the mini-grid he mentioned will address that, Only no law stops a state from generating power, which is true in the case of Akwa Ibom.

Yes he did. The mini grid will allow consumers who aren't connected to national grid get power.

The truth is that there is nothing in the Electricity Power Sector Reforms Act that stops any state from doing so, so the only thing they must do is to get NERC’s permit and licenses depending on whatever categorisation of investment they want to do whether it is distribution or generation.

This should not be limited to states, private entities should be allowed to step in like signing generation and distribution contracts with communities to generate and distribute electricity 24/7 and bill the customers directly and even lay their own transmission cables to cut the government out completely.

Blue3k:
You guys realise many states have had Independent power projects for many years right?

yeah..a few states had IPP but constitutionally had to transmit power to the National Grid because they didn't have autonomy,....it is that power to transmit internally that was just granted them...this is good news but why it took the leaders many years to realize this is baffling..Akpabio was ready to make Akwa Ibom self - sufficient in electricity generation but this autonomy clause was the issue....gradually,tides of nation building and developmental trends will push us towards true federalism,regionalism probably restructuring...we will get there.

Again Fashola is being economical with the truth ,Even though nothing stops state Govts from generating power there is a clause that makes it impossible for them to utilize the power but instead forces them to send it into the National grid so lazy northern states can enjoy free electricity .

the real issue is that national grid nonsense, who does that in this 21st century

allow every region to generate their own electricity using any available resources around them

good news

osile2012:
give states resource control .

And electricity is not a resource?

Clap for ya sef.

Ous Nairalanders let us establish our own power generation and distribution companies. We can do it

But day don break oh..restructuring don start oh

Where is Mynd44 sef?
Where is Lalasticlala sef?

I am sure Ambode would abandon road repairs now and divert all the finance to investment in power generation

Useless government

Apart from the plethora of issues bugging down the power sector, it is not just enough to give nods and licence to establishment of ipp, the nerc fosters uncompetitive market, with clauses that allows for compelling inflow into the National grid system with risk aversion, so the hammer isn't hitting the nail on the head,

The off-grid chain market will grow to full capacity, but decentralizing the National grid system at a swoop at the moment will have a reverberating shock across the power sector, and the consumers will bear the brunt, however, I guess this slow approach by nerc, is to cushion the effects of the shock, and disintegrate the National grid system through a gradual time frame.

However, in line with the circumstantial situation;

There is need for reformation of transmission sector - the transmission company of Nigeria needs to act as commercial administrator, market operator and independent system operator.ease of liquidity constraints will dishamper the cumbersome accumulation of debt

Also distribution coys need to aid the value chain with provision of smart meter for consumers, To forestall some cases of loss

Lastly there is incontrovertible need for reformation of gas sector, thus liberalization of gas to power market, domestic supply obligation needs are to be considered to ease the price of gas, in line with the gas reform programme.

Decentralize power, each state should have their grid. In fact localities can have their local grids if they so desire.Govt job would only be regulation.

I won't spend my state money to build power plants only to be fed on national grid and distributef by quota system. Nobody will be willing to do that.

Best they can do is to connect these microgrids to national grid using intelligent circuitry controls. Simply means any excess power my state/community produces are fed back to national grid.

I hope states will be allowed to practise this holistically, and not the old way wen after generation, NEPA or NERC as it were will still be the ones to dictate where nd where to feed the power with, and end up shortchanging the real investors thru quota system of feeding the national grid with everything generated and from whence distributions re carried out to states that re idling away nd knew nothing about how the project came about in the first place, wat sort of injustice is that? ,these were some of the things that killed the Enron Power Project in Lagos, if not the light situation would ve been solved a long time ago..


Our leaders just lack the political will to solve the power problem once and for all because they use it as an avenue to loot, just imagine the 16 billion dollars in addition to the billions spent by Obasamjo nd Jona respectively,was more than enough to solve our light wen u take into consideration that the Itagui hydroelectric power project Of 7GW between Brazil no Paraguay cost about 20 billion dollars....

Good move,
V.Good move///

ProWalker:


It's a gradual thing, we will get there

it shouldn't be a gradual thing, cos we've been hearing that since Abacha era, the future is now. Everyone must control their resources

Reality has dawn on Fashola. It is more easier to criticize from outside not until when you are inside.

Actually there is progress, what we need is a sustained progress and not retraction.

A good one

Good